European countries threaten to ramp up Russia sanctions

LONDON: European foreign ministers threatened to step up sanctions on Russia at a crunch meeting in London on Monday, as the continent´s top diplomat accused the Kremlin of “playing games” over peace negotiations with Ukraine.

Moscow has brushed aside pressure from European leaders to agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire on Monday, saying Russia would not accept ultimatums. It has instead proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, but European countries had warned a ceasefire needed to be in place for this to go ahead.

In a joint statement after their meeting in the British capital, the foreign ministers said they were concerned that Russia “had not shown any serious intent to make progress.” “It must do so without delay,” the ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the EU said.

They said they had agreed “to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia´s ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy.”

But host David Lammy, the UK´s foreign minister, stopped short of announcing fresh sanctions as had been planned, and several of the measures in the statement have already been unveiled.

These include some proposed by the EU, which has been working on a 17th package of sanctions with further measures to target “shadow fleet” vessels it says are dodging measures imposed by Western nations on Moscow´s oil exports following Russia´s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Putin has effectively dismissed the latest ceasefire call, launching attacks across the front line, according to Kyiv, and he has not responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky´s request for a personal meeting.

“Russians are completely ignoring the offer of a full and durable ceasefire starting on May 12,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X after joining the London meeting online. “They continue to attack Ukrainian positions all along the front line.”

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired more than 100 drones overnight. The EU´s top diplomat Kaja Kallas told journalists in London that “if there is no ceasefire there cannot be talks under fire.”

“We need to put the pressure on Russia because they are playing games. And in order to put the pressure, we have to use the tools that we have,” she said. Earlier, the German government warned that if Moscow does not accept the ceasefire demand on Monday, “preparations will be set in motion” for fresh sanctions.

Lammy called on Putin to “get serious about peace,” and warned that European countries must “be prepared if this is not the moment of seriousness from Putin and we do not get that peace”.

The “Weimar+” group that met on Monday was set up in February in response to shifting US policy towards the war in Ukraine and European security under President Donald Trump, who said direct talks were needed to determine whether peace was possible.

Zelensky said Monday he wanted Trump to attend direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul, after the US leader said he was “thinking” of going. “Of course, all of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting,” Zelensky said in a post on X.